Measure impact on diet & health

MEASURING IMPACT ON DIET AND HEALTH

Food has always been known to have an impact on health. The challenge is to evaluate and quantify it.

The way Danone tackles measurement today is based on the fact that because we sell food, our products have an effect on diet, which unltimately has an effect on health. This approach is key to the achievement of the company's mission: “Bringing health through food to as many as possible”.

That’s why we developed the NutriImpact methodology. It is designed to demonstrate the impact of our categories on nutrition and diet and through this, their impact on health. NutriImpact analyses what people eat and then models the impact on diet and health. This allows us to define the nutritional profiles of our products with the best impact & demonstrate the relevance of our categories & lines in healthy diets.

A COMBINATION OF 2 RESEARCH ASSETS

ANALYSING WHAT PEOPLE EAT

Dietary patterns & diet quality

Danone Nutricia Research uses dietary recording methods to know what people eat and clustering to characterise their diet in terms of:

Dietary patterns, in order to group people according to their dietary habits.

+

MODELLING INTERVENTIONS INTO DIETARY & HEALTH IMPACT

Simulation & modelling

Our teams conduct virtual interventions in order to model the diet as a whole and assess the impact of our products. They have two means of action:

Simulation, to project the effect of changing the composition of the products or the quantity consumed on nutrient-intakes,

Optimisation, to assess how our categories can help reach nutritionally balanced diets while sticking as much as possible to food habits.

Measure & Impact Kid’s Drinking Habits

Public Health Context:

Water is the healthiest way to hydrate. Yet in 2006 only 12% of children’s fluid intake in Poland was plain water and over 60% of other beverages consumed contained sugar, while rates of obesity and overweight were rising amongst Polish children.

Danone’s Purpose:

Evaluate the long term impact (1 year) of a 5-week education programme aiming to drive Polish kids (3 to 6 years old) towards healthier drinking behaviours.

OUR APPROACH

A comprehensive educational program called “Mom, Dad, I prefer water” targeted Polish children, parents and teachers.

After 6 yearly editions in 1,340 Polish cities, 800,000 children in 8,000 educational institutions and 800,000 parents were reached.

Through an intervention study, we evaluated if a 5-week education program has long term (1 year) impact on kids’ drinking behaviours.

Business Impact

The project served to increase the brand credibility and establish Zywiec as the leader in healthy hydration in the country.

Public Health Impact

About 40% of Polish mothers of children aged 3-6 years now know the program and its idea. 92% of Polish mothers evaluate the program as interesting and important, mainly due to the healthy hydration messages.

We improved drinking habits: a 5-week intervention study showed that after 1 year, children were able to switch from sugary beverages to water, and they multiplied their water consumption by 5. In the meantime, they decreased their beverages with sugar.

Stakeholder engagement

The program was co-created with the Ministry of Health, the Mother and child institute and was supported by the Ministry of Education and external experts. All education materials were developed with teachers. The program, aiming to promote water as the healthiest option, engaged the whole kids community: children, parents, health care professionals and teachers. It is endorsed by Ministries and local experts.

After the success with kids, the Polish team started a new program called: “Mum, dad drink water”, aiming to engage kids to educate their parents on healthier behaviours.